The impeachment battle is heating up on the eve of the historic impeachment vote from the House floor on Capitol Hill.
But a surprise Supreme Court move just pulled the rug out from under the Democrat-led impeachment — and it’s a huge win for President Donald Trump and his political allies.
It turns out that the Democrats made a mistake in finalizing the second article of impeachment, which charges Trump with obstruction of Congress.
Article II of impeachment document claims that the president “has directed the unprecedented, categorical, and indiscriminate defiance of subpoenas issued by the House of Representatives… ”
Democrats claim Trump specifically obstructing three key subpoenas issued by House Democrats.
One of the subpoenas involves access to Trump’s financial records. The others had to do with records that involve Democrat-led investigations that are ongoing.
But Trump hasn’t budged on any of the subpoenas on the principle that he has executive privilege and doesn’t have to hand over the documents unless a Supreme Court order is given. So Trump’s lawyer’s asked the Supreme Court to look at the cases… and the Supreme Court just agreed.
Friday, the Supreme Court said it will review those three subpoenas: A critical move which confirms what Trump has been saying all along.
He isn’t obstructing anything.
In other words — Trump and his lawyers are following procedures.
In turn, this undermines the impeachment-hungry Democrats, who swear that Trump obstructed congressional efforts by resisting to fork over documents.
“Even if the high court were eventually to rule against the claims by President Trump, the fact that the justices decided to hear them, in effect, supports his constitutional contention that he had the right to challenge congressional subpoenas in court, or to demand that those issuing the subpoenas seek to enforce them through court,” Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz wrote in a recent op-ed for The Hill.
In other words, just by hearing the case, the Supreme Court has effectively undermined the House Democrats’ second article of impeachment… because their actions are evidence the White House did nothing wrong.
“House Democrats should seriously consider dropping this second article in light of the recent Supreme Court action,” Dershowitz warned. “In fairness, this development involving the high court occurred after Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee made up their minds to include obstruction of Congress as an impeachment article.”
“Yet the new circumstances give some Democratic members of Congress, who may end up paying an electoral price if they support the House Judiciary Committee recommendation, meaningful reason for voting against at least one of the articles of impeachment,” he said.
The Horn editorial team